Listen To This 1973 Spec, Stack Injected, Can Am Racer Big Block Chevy Make 750hp At Over 7,000 RPM


Listen To This 1973 Spec, Stack Injected, Can Am Racer Big Block Chevy Make 750hp At Over 7,000 RPM

We’ve lionized the Can-Am series more times than we can count here at BangShift through old videos and stories that spoke about the big block powered, 2,000lb cars that tore around American road courses in the 1960s and 1970s with the world’s best at the wheel. One thing we really have not seen before is an actual Can-Am motor being run to the wood on the dyno, until today that is. In this video which was taken at the shop of Performance Reasearch, an engine building outfit in the Columbus, Ohio area we see a big block Chevy complete with the calliope velocity stacks atop the mechanical injection crank out nearly 750hp at well north of 7,000 RPM. This is a sweet song and if you think about a field of these engines (or similar outside of the Porsches) you can only imagine the symphony that greeted the ears of fans as they sat in the stands and these cars came by with everything they had.

It is either a testament to luck or the quality of the drivers, but there were few deaths in the Can-Am series despite the incredible power to weight ratio of the cars, the tire technology of the day, and the general attitude toward safety at the time. We always talk about the old Group B rally cars as being crazily overpowered and yes, those guys were flying through the woods, but these cars had to have been unlike anything else on Earth to drive during this time period. They’d eat up a Grand Prix car in the brute strength department. With fields filled with the Mark Donohues, John Surtees, Parnelli Jones, and Pet Revsons, of the day it was like a damned international all star race at ever event.

We’re going to say that this is a 454 in the dyno cell because we’re reasonably certain that it is. These guys would have been running that displacement. We’re also going out on a limb to suggest that this thing may actually be a ZL1 block as Can-Am cars did run the ultra rare aluminum blocked engines in them. If that’s the case, someone has a whole lot of cheddar wrapped up in this piece and it makes the whole scene even better to hear it at 7,000 RPM plus!

PRESS PLAY BELOW TO HEAR AND EXPERIENCE THE CAGED FURY OF A CAN-AM BIG BLOCK IN A DYNO CELL AT FULL BORE –


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2 thoughts on “Listen To This 1973 Spec, Stack Injected, Can Am Racer Big Block Chevy Make 750hp At Over 7,000 RPM

  1. MGBChuck

    Glorious Engine, between 67 and 72 went to several Can-Am races on the left coast (Trans-Am too), exciting racing even with quite a few runaway wins, back markers were exciting too. (side note: was at a BBQ Sat. and a friend had a complete Crower injection set/up like this he wants to get rid of (pump to stacks complete)

  2. Mark Gillespie

    At the behest of Zora , Don Yenko took over production and sales of ZL 1 aluminum block from Chevrolet in the mid 70s. Over the years several changes and improvements were made. I have the Yenko records on the blocks

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